Another day on the Grid
by Jotter
Summary: Another day of hiding how you feel. HarryRuth. One shot, short little ficlet.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own, nor claim to own, anything to do with Spooks. That honour goes to the people at Kudos and the BBC. I'm just borrowing some of their characters and playing around with them. I promise they'll be nice and clean when I give them back.

**Other bits and bobs: **This one jumped into my brain this morning. I guess I'd set it late Series 4 onwards, before they got their act together. Hope I've got Ruth's internal ramblings right - I imagine that she talks to herself a lot, actually lol. Anyway. Please R&R :o)

**Another day on the Grid (Another day of hiding how you feel)**

_This is getting bloody ridiculous _Ruth thought to herself. She was knelt down, picking up the files that she'd just dropped. She'd dropped them because she had tried to dodge out of Harry's way as he walked in the other direction down the corridor. It wasn't that there wasn't enough space for the two of them in the corridor, more the thought that if he as much as brushed his arm against hers as he passed her, she would blush profusely and then he'd know how much such simple contact with him effected her. She'd tried to manoeuvre herself so that she blended in with the wall tiles so quickly that in her haste she had spilled her files all over the floor.

_I can't even walk past my boss in a hallway! _she silently berated herself as she reached for another file. She was purposefully avoiding looking at Harry, who, ever the gentleman, had immediately offered to help pick up the files. She added another pale folder marked 'eyes only' to the top of her pile and reached for the last one at the same time as Harry.

"Thanks" she muttered, her hand recoiling at the speed of light as she realised that he already held it in his. Harry looked at her and for the first time she painfully raised her eyes to look at him.

"Here" he smiled, handing her the bundles of paper "tricky things these files. It's a sign of the times that we have to have so damn many of them". Ruth smiled quickly and felt the slow creep of crimson onto her cheeks as he looked at her expectantly. She stood up and Harry followed.

"Thanks Harry" _stupid stupid stupid! _she mumbled, before heading off to her station, where she sought sanctuary behind her computer monitor. Harry stood and watched her leave, wondering what he'd done wrong. She'd been acting very strangely around him for a while now.

The rest of the day passed fortunately quickly and uneventfully for Ruth and now she and a certain someone were the last two on the Grid. She'd buried herself into her task of working through the mountains of paperwork that stood in neat piles on her desk without too many distractions. She'd avoided going into Harry's office as much as possible. She desperately wanted to see him and be near him, but she also desperately wanted to stay away from him, lest she make a complete fool of herself again in his presence. A couple of times she'd looked up and caught sight of him, sat in his office on the phone, or reading a file and she watched him for a while before he looked as though he might look back at her.

_You're practically stalking your boss_ she thought during one such occasion _well, not stalking stalking, it's not as though I'm following him home or anything I'm more… optical stalking, Oh shut up and get on with your work, you silly woman. He's not interested. Nor would he be interested in hearing about how you're optically stalking him. Type, damnit type!_ The next time she lifted her head, her eyes inadvertently fell immediately onto Harry's face as he walked over to her desk. She looked down instantly. _Bugger bugger bugger he's coming over! Quick, look busy . _

"Ruth" Harry said quietly _I love the way he says my name _

"Yes, Harry?" she replied _Stop being so obvious - look away from him otherwise you'll blush again!_

"Have I done something untoward that's upset you?" he asked. Ruth's eyes snapped back to his face.

"What?" she replied, somewhat ungracefully.

"Well, it's just that it seems like you've been making every effort to avoid being in my company lately. It's rather unusual that you've e-mailed me 217 times today rather than walk the 10 yards to my office a few times. I was just wondering if I've done something wrong?" he asked her, eyes filled with concern.

_Oh God, Harry. You've done nothing wrong at all, that's half the problem. If you were utterly horrible I wouldn't be in this situation to start with!_

"No, no Harry don't be silly. You've done nothing wrong… I've just been a bit lazy today that's all, felt like testing out this new internal mailing system that Malcolm's always on about" she smiled at him, hoping that he'd buy what she was saying. She'd hate to have to try and talk herself out of this anymore than essentially necessary, otherwise she'd end up telling him the truth, she knew it. _How could I possibly tell you that I think I'm in love with you and just being near you makes me want to kiss you?_

Harry nodded and seemed to consider her answer.

"Oh, ok that's alright then. I'd hate to think I've upset you, Ruth." she looked at him and smiled genuinely for the first time that day.

"You could never upset me, Harry" _shit! Did you REALLY just say that?! _Ruth looked down as the familiar rise of crimson adorned her cheeks. Harry blinked and concealed his pleasant surprise.

"That's very good to hear" he replied softly after a moment. "I do hope you'll resume your usual barging into my office tomorrow though, I rather missed it today actually" he smiled at her and stood up from the edge of her desk that he'd perched himself on. _oh my god, he did not just say that? _"Goodnight, Ruth" he said finally before giving her one last smile and walking back into his office to collect his coat.

"Goodnight Harry" she called after him, hoping that the monitor was concealing the huge grin that had plastered itself onto her face.

**The End**


End file.
